Coronavirus: Tunisia deploys police robot on lockdown patrol

7th Apr 2020 | Source: BBC

The robot questions people it sees out on the streets

A police robot has been deployed to patrol areas of Tunisia's capital, Tunis, to ensure that people are observing a coronavirus lockdown.

If it spies anyone walking in the largely deserted streets, it approaches them and asks why they are out.

They must then show their ID and other papers to the robot's camera, so officers controlling it can check them.

This is the second week of a nationwide lockdown to contain the virus, which has killed 14 people.

Everyone must stay in their homes, but people are allowed out for medical reasons or to purchase necessities.

The North African nation currently has 436 people being treated for Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus.

How does the robot work?

It is not clear how many of the Tunisian-built surveillance robots, called PGuards, have been deployed by the interior ministry.

Image copyright AFP

The remote-controlled robot has a thermal-imaging camera and uses Lidar technology

The manufacturer, Enova Robotics, told the BBC it was a confidential matter. It also refused to reveal the price tag.

A four-wheeled PGuard has a thermal-imaging camera and Lidar (light detection and ranging) technology, which works like radar but uses light instead of radio waves.

The interior ministry posted a video on Facebook about its futuristic mission to impose the restrictions not long after the lockdown started.

Some welcomed the move, while others said the robot "moved too slowly" to be effective.

But several videos have since appeared on social media showing people being stopped by a PGuard. In one a man, who is asked if he knows there is an ongoing lockdown, explains that he wants to buy cigarettes.